A football fan faced with a sky-high train fare flew to another country and back to save cash.

Jack Peat, 36, has done everything he can to see his hometown team Doncaster Rovers play since moving down to London in 2012.

And that includes riding a tram, two trains and two flights just to see them play against Barrow AFC in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, yesterday.

The Crystal Palace local did the 11-hour pilgrimage after refusing to fork out an £389 for an open return ticket from Euston to the port town.

But a persistent Peat managed to bag a journey costing him just £32.70 — just 8% of the train ticket cost.

The London Economic founder’s journey started off on a tram from Beckenham Road to East Croydon for £2.50 yesterday at 6.45am.

He then paid £5.90 for a train from East Croydon to Gatwick Airport before boarding a £10 Ryanair flight to Dublin, Ireland.

Peat then jumped on another flight to Manchester for £7.80 at 1.50pm and then got a train from Manchester Airport to Barrow for £6.50.

He finally arrived at Barrow at 3.30pm, two hours before kick-off and less than 300 miles from where he started off.

He said: ‘The last stretch seemed to take absolutely forever, but it was a great day out and I managed to squeeze a few beers in before kick-off.’

Doncaster Rovers appreciated the effort Peat made to catch their game, to say the least, by inviting him into the dressing room for a pre-match chat.

The average price for train tickets has climbed by an eye-watering 48.9% since 2010, with price hikes being as regular a thing in January as new gym memberships.

Brits pay five times as much in rail fares as their European neighbours, according to a 2011 report commissioned by the Department for Transport.

Campaigners say rail fare rises just add more worries for passengers already feeling the squeeze from double-digit inflation, stagnating wages and soaring household bills.

Matthew Topham, a campaigner for We Own It that argues for public ownership of rail services, told Metro.co.uk that Peat’s mammoth journey should never have happened.

‘Few things make the dire state of the UK’s broken railway clearer than football fans forced into taking two flights to see a fixture,’ he said.

‘Our railways have been carved up and sold off for private operators to make a profit. Public ownership could save £1 billion a year: enough to cut fares by a fifth.’

For Bruce Williamson of Railfuture, a pressure group representing 20,000 train riders, the government can easily do more to protect passengers from rising fares.

‘It’s absolute madness that people are priced off one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport and onto one of the most polluting,’ he said.

‘They need to follow the German example and offer attractive fares to entice travellers back onto the railways, not price them onto aeroplanes.’

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